DL&W washington line sightings/reports

I might be the only one reporting on this thread. I guess we'll see. I visit stewartsville 4 times a year, in sight of the washington line. (Sorry, I'm an ex EL person, and on the EL it was the Washington Line. "secondary" came with CR, who used the PRR system of naming tracks)
So Anyway. traffic seems to be down, with 9 or 10 cars a day on average. typical this past week has been 3 or 4 tank cars for BASF and rest covered hoppers mostly. 2 GP-38's yesterday, which is reasonable power for a train that really only needs 1 GP-38. Sd-40's and GP-60's are such overkill, but I guess thats what passes for local power these days.

You may be the only one reporting but I'd like to see your reports. Almost anything on the M&E will have to come through what you report. So if there are only 10 cars, of which 4 are for BASF...that tells us how much is for M&E + other local deliveries. I don't think much goes through the CSX interchange for M&E.

Local east today thru stewartsville at 2:30p. 8 long covered hoppers, 1 box car, 6 tank for BASF, SD-40/GP-38 both facing east.
Expect will be west 9pm or so tnt with GP-38 lnf.

thanks! There is a customer on the Chester branch that may receive tank cars, can you tell if the tank cars are all for BASF by their type? Also is there any update you know of regarding the closing of the BASF plant?

Tank cars appeared to be all for BASF. White Ethylene tank cars. there has been talk of closing the basf plant for 20 years now. so who knows.

ccutler wrote:thanks! There is a customer on the Chester branch that may receive tank cars, can you tell if the tank cars are all for BASF by their type? Also is there any update you know of regarding the closing of the BASF plant?

The few tank cars that go to the Chester Branch are usually black and are for Holland Manufacturing in Succasunna.... However, Holland occasionally gets covered hoppers as well!

pdtrains wrote:Tank cars appeared to be all for BASF. White Ethylene tank cars. there has been talk of closing the basf plant for 20 years now. so who knows.

In this case, more than just talk: http://www.basf.com/group/corporate/en_ ... /P-10-0125" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

riffian wrote:

pdtrains wrote:Tank cars appeared to be all for BASF. White Ethylene tank cars. there has been talk of closing the basf plant for 20 years now. so who knows.

Well if they are going to close it down within 6 weeks, u can't tell right now. Still getting 25 or so inbound tank cars loads a week. My experience is that it can easily take 2 years longer than expected, to transfer chemical production to another plant. Holdup is usually federal regulations on transportation of hazardous chemicals. Movement of haz mat chemicals to and from the Washington plant is already in compliance with regs, however to move haz mat to and from a new location requires whole new govt review. Especially trucking finished product. If finished product was being trucked from washington to another plant in NJ, lets say, it could take years to get an OK to truck the same product from Louisiana to NJ. A lot of small towns probably don't even know that truck loads of haz mat are driving thru their town today...but when a new truck route is applied for, now they find out and are all against it. Also after 50 years, a lot of regs applying to Washington we probably grandfathered in, and now it could be a lot tougher to get same thing approved in todays climate. Also, NJ could have made them an offer they couldnt refuse, just to keep jobs in NJ. without BASF, Washington will become just another run down town in the NE rust belt. Not that it isn't already, it will just get worse as the tax base and all the supporting jobs dry up also.

Not saying that BASF in washington won't close down in 6 weeks, just I won;t be surprised if it doesn't.

I guess we'll see

Trains go east Sun.,Tues. Thurs.anywhere from 11 am-1pm. NS has a slow 10 mph speed on line Why ??? Used to be 30-35 from Strykers Rd. to just west of Lincoln Ave xing in Washington.Empties usually west Mon.,Wed. Fri. late afternoon early evening.I believe train lays over nights at Washington. At least they used to.Another thing Conrail did better. They had 6 day service on line in both directions. I grew up near Washington line.

10 or 15 mph due low rail joints. At least by NS standards.

Within the last 5 minutes, at just before 2:00 p.m. today, Sunday, November 30th, I heard from here on the mountain at northwestern Lebanon Township, about 5 miles to the east of the track, a train blowing for a crossing. So something is operating this afternoon.

Within the last 5 minutes, at about 12:45 p.m. today, Monday, December 15th, I heard from here on the mountain at northwestern Lebanon Township, about 5 miles to the east of the track, a train blowing for a crossing. So something is operating this afternoon. Being a weekday, it might be NJT, but suspect it is a freight.